If you are trading in a 2 year old car, why worry about long term maintenance? You will probably be buying another car before the factory warranty is up. If not, there is always extended warranty. With that said, we had a Q5 in the pass and test drove the new RDX a few times. The Q5 does not drive as sporty as the X3, the Q5's interior is a bit nicer but the build quality is not as good. Our Q5 had a lot more problem than our X3, it was in the shop quite a bit. The RDX, like others have said, is not in the same class. The quality is not as good as the Q5 and X3, a lot of standard options missing. One that stood out the most was the passenger seat, it lacks height adjustment and lumbar support. The passenger seat is set very low, I felt like I was almost sitting on the floor. Sounds like you want the best of both world, sportiness and reliability, unfortunately, that car doesnt exist as of now.

Good point, but the reason I'm planning to trade in is because I miss having an SUV, the other car we have is a Civic. Also because I got a neat $10,000 discount on the MSRP of the M37 on the M37, I kind of dodged the first year's depreciation and hence I'm looking at just swapping the car.

I agree to your and other people's points - Q5 isn't as sporty, RDX misses a lot of standard features and hence in my opinion doesn't qualify as a luxury brand. For heaven's sake which SUV doesn't have rear air vents!!